Title: On the Bounce
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: All Harry Potter Books/Movies excepting the epilogue.
Rating: MA
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Starship Troopers.
Summary: After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry decides that he is done with the Wizarding World, and Hermione goes with him. Welcome to the Mobile Infantry. Crossover with Starship Troopers Book. AU
The shower room for Third Company, Echo Section was filled with steam as Harry stripped off and walked in. Seven months of training down, and Echo Section was down from twenty to nine, five Wizards and four Witches, Harry and Hermione included. Of the eleven who had not made it this far, six had quit; two had died in training accidents and three had been injured enough that they got a Medical Discharge.
Walking through the rows of shower heads, passing the other Witches and Wizards, Harry noticed Hermione and walked over to her. At first it had been odd seeing Hermione and the other Witches naked in the showers but over time, and as exhaustion set in from the training, the embarrassment became less and less of an issue.
"How's the shoulder?" Harry asked as he turned on the water on the shower head right next to Hermione's.
"Still sore." Hermione replied.
Hermione has pulled her shoulder in training the day before. Knowing exactly where she had injured it, Harry began feel around Hermione's shoulder blade until he felt the knot of tensed muscles.
"Ready?" Harry asked, getting a nod from Hermione.
Holding onto her shoulder at the joint with one hand, Harry pressed his thumb hard against the knot of tensed muscle, causing Hermione to hiss in pain, and then after a minute he released and she sighed as the pain dissolved and the knot dissipated.
"Thanks." Hermione said, half breathless with pain and with relief evident in her voice.
Harry nodded and got back under his own shower and quickly washed up. The nine of them half trudged out of the showers and into their barracks. Training Instructor Jansen was waiting for them when they arrived, still damp and dressed only in towels, but they all snapped to attention when they saw him.
"At ease." Jansen said.
A few of them bent over to pick up dropped towels, but most simply kicked them towards their own bunk and walked naked to their lockers.
"I have some good news." Jansen said. "Tomorrow morning, you are to report to the Armoury and you will be issued with your training Powered Armour Suit. Get some shut-eye. Lights out in ten minutes."
This caused a cheer to run through the group before Jansen left. The Powered Armour had only been included in their training in the last month, and they had only gotten to wear it twice, briefly; if you did not include the six hours that it had taken to calibrate the Powered Armour to the user in the first place. Both of the previous times they had used Powered Armour had been learning how to walk and move in suits. As the Armour reacted to and amplified all of the motions its wearer performed, if you were not careful you could accidently put your arm through someone's chest. Luckily it was fairly easy to adjust to the increased power provided as the movements themselves were exactly the same. Harry had even seen one of the Instructors playing the piano in his Powered Armour, though things like that took a bit of practice, and the ability to play the piano when not in Powered Armour.
"So, Hermione…" Harry began, as he started to get dressed for bed. "How long do you think until you convince the Cadre into letting you be trained in full maintenance and repair of the Powered Armour?"
Like almost all of the recruits who had made it this far, M Class or not, Harry loved his Powered Armour. Hermione, though, took it to a whole different level. Not only did she love any time she got to wear it, but she was fascinated with how it worked, and why it did not short out around M Class personnel.
Under normal circumstances, one or two MI per Platoon, usually a Corporal, were in charge of Armour Maintenance of the Platoon's Powered Armour, however this was limited to routine maintenance and if the Armour needed more extensive repairs it either was repaired by a Navy Technician or a new suit was pulled from storage and configured to the relevant trooper, which took six hours for the Trooper being fitted and up to twenty-four man hours for the Troopers in charge of Armour Maintenance.
"Well…" Hermione said. "Another few months, I think. I convinced Instructor Jansen to give me the standard Armour Maintenance Manuals when we were fitted last month, and I have memorised them and am scheduled to take a test in a few days during down time. I pass the written and I get a chance to assist with a few fittings for Fourth Company, Tango Section, who are being fitted next week. I do well there I will be certified for MI Armour Maintenance Rating."
"You know," Tara, the American witch who bunked on Hermione's other side, said. "I don't think anyone has ever been Rated for Armour Maintenance before they even left Boot before."
"That's Hermione for you." Harry replied. "She makes over-achievers look like slackers."
"Hey!" Hermione said, mock sulking, causing everyone in the barracks to laugh good naturedly.
There was an old sentiment about Powered Armour amongst both Troopers and Recruits. It went thus: 'If I could find a suit of Powered Armour that lets me scratch between my shoulder blades, I would marry it'. Harry figured, if anyone could crack the answer to that critical design flaw, it would be Hermione. If she did, there would be a lot of Troopers sending her gift baskets and marrying their Armour.
Third Company, Echo Section stood at attention dressed in their Powered Armour. Each of the Recruits vaguely resembled big steel gorillas. The back of the head of the Powered Armour was 'overdeveloped' as that was where most of the computing power for the Armour was located and enough armour plating to protect both the electronics and the Trooper's head. The training Armour was unarmed, except for the Y Racks on the back and out over both shoulders. The Y Racks, which were grenade launchers that could cast grenades up to a hundred feet to each side ahead of the Trooper, were unloaded for the Recruits.
One of the most common phrases that the Instructors used to chide the Recruits into action was 'On the bounce'. This was not just a phrase, it was literally how the MI moved and one of the reasons why they were called Mobile Infantry instead of just plain Infantry, the other being the Orbital Drop Pods that were 'fired' out of Navy Starships. The Powered Armour was equipped with Jump Jets, which were able to allow a Trooper to move in bounding leaps at over a hundred kilometres an hour, jump clear over a three story building in single bound and survive the final stages of an orbital insertion 'drop', all with just a flex of the legs.
"Alright Recruits." Jansen said. "Today we are going to begin training with your Armour's Jump Jets. We are going to start slowly. Very slowly. We have already had two Recruits in Second Company die because they went to hard with their Jump Jets and broke their necks."
Harry was the first one of the Recruits to begin, using his Jets to jump forward a few feet and landing quite easily. After a moment Hermione copied him, but she did not land quite as easily as Harry did and had to take a half step to steady herself. The others began to cautiously test out their Jump Jets. The Recruits began to bounce around for a while, slowly getting the hang of the Jump Jets and how to control not just the strength of the Jets but also the angle so they could perform low and long jumps or high and short jumps.
"Form up!" Jansen ordered after a few hours.
One the M Class recruits had formed up; Jansen ran them through a series of formation movements. Leapfrog advance, column wheeling and flanking manoeuvres. These were all manoeuvers that the Recruits had been well trained in out of Powered Armour, and the focus was adapting the formations to the advanced capacities of the Powered Armour.
Over the next four hours, each Recruit moved back and forth over several hundred square kilometres of open Siberian Tundra, moving in 'extremely close' formation for an MI in Powered Armour, with more than two hundred meters between each Recruit.
Echo Section bounced back to the permanent Training Camp, where the entirety of First Company going through larger scale manoeuvres in the tundra just outside the Camp, but not in Powered Armour. Training was always very deliberate and well planned, where the Recruits were always trained in any task 'the old way', on foot without Powered Armour, and they had to prove that they were proficient in almost every aspect of military life and combat skills before the Powered Armour had ever been issued. Second and Third Companies had been the first to get their Power Armoured, with First and Fourth Companies just now being issued theirs.
After being helped out of their Powered Armour, Third Company, Echo Section made their way back to their barracks to shower and change before they were marched to one of the class rooms where they had to write a paper on the historical origin of the Pincer Manoeuvre and the vulnerabilities of the tactic given modern technology.
TBC…
